By Trish McIntire: We know the drill. If the taxpayer hasn't received their tax refund by Tuesday, they won't get it until the next week. The IRS mails the checks on Friday because they batch process the returns. Noon on Thursdays the gates open and all the return that have been received since the prior Thursday are admitted to the processing queue. A return arriving at 2pm on Thursday will sit for a week. This system was in place when all returns were mailed and has continued with e-filed returns. In fact, the IRS publishes a chart each year, the Refund Cycle Chart, I use to tell clients when to expect their refund.
This will be changing next year with the introduction of Modernized e-File (MeF).
Read complete post Bye, Bye Batch Processing
Source: Our Taxing Times, 28 July 2009.
